Pastor Michael returns

And he’s gone from being dishonest to being paranoid, delusional and threatening. Well, the “delusional” part is a given, I suppose, given the nonsense we know he believes in. Despite the fact that the mothership has tried to beam him out of the conflict (see Taryn Hodgson’s apology for the Christian mis-representation of the atheists here), he still insists that it’s the UCT Atheist and Agnostic Society who had intentions that “were not right to [him] at all”, and that the AAS is now “threatening him”.

His grievances are two-fold: first, he’s upset that we (myself on this site, and the AAS on their forum) published his correspondence with us. As I’ve explained previously, we were forced to do so because the reasons for myself and Tauriq withdrawing from the debate were being mis-characterised by Michael, as well as by websites run by Taryn Hodgson and Paintball Hammond. Despite the apology received, the mis-representations have not been removed from some[ref]The ACA website was edited in February to more accurately reflect the events[/ref] websites, so this reason for publishing the correspondence stands, and leads me to publish extracts from the most recent correspondence here also.

Second, he’s upset because he’s now apparently being victimised, suffering “all kinds of insults”, and having become “the targets of some unknown male and Female ( Mostly Whites…), who have discriminated and
destroyed my Car everytime i have parked at UCT parking”. He then goes on to say “i did not find the reason to imagine that it might have links to your people who wanted to destroy what i do for God on This Campus and myself”. Which begs the question: Why the hell email the AAS about it, then? If he’s got no reason to believe that the alleged victimisation has something to do with the AAS, then perhaps he’s simply been obnoxious or dishonest with other people, who are victimising him as a result?

Also, if these people are “unknown”, it’s unclear how Michael knows they are “Mostly Whites”. If he’s seen them, then he knows something about who they are. If these incidents are regular, he can presumably hide behind a (non-burning) bush, with a member of campus security, and catch these Whites red-handed. God certainly doesn’t seem to provide revelations related to initiative – at least not to Michael, it appears. It’s also unclear how Michael thinks these nasty people got to know what he or his car look like. As far as I know, no AAS members ever met with him – everything was arranged by email. And even if someone knew what he looked like, we’d still have to be following him as he arrived on campus, so as to know where he parks in order to proceed with our futile attempts at “destroying” his apparently indestructible car.

The main reason for contacting us, however is to ask us to remove all correspondence with him from this, the AAS, and other websites. If we “do not remove it in the next 48 Hours, i will take further actions because i consider that after all they have done as a Threat, Trespass and an attempt to destroy me. i speak to you with Love as a Man of God”. This demand is timestamped 12:46 on July 12, which means that Tauriq, myself and others have just over 24 hours left before we get struck down by lightning, or something. By (or via the interventions of) a loving Man of God, no less.

Pastor Michael, if you read this, then please take note of what the mothership said: “I will urge Pastor Michael to send you an apology. I do agree with Jordan that Michael’s communication and conduct towards you was often deceptive, rude and unchristian.” If you’d care to apologise for spreading misinformation about us – and if you ensure that all such misrepresentations are removed from websites on which they appear – then I’ll gladly give you all due credit for doing so. Until then, I sincerely hope that whoever is victimising you stops, whatever their reasons for doing so might be.

Related

African Christian Action had edited their post in February, and it now contains no falsehoods relating to the lead-up to the debate. I can’t speak for their account of the event that nevertheless went ahead, given that I wasn’t there.